Elite-Select Challenge 2025: Five Big Takeaways (Women’s Div. Recap)

Parcha continued their blazing summer with an undefeated weekend.

August 26, 2025 by Edward Stephens in Opinion, Recap

Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2025 club ultimate season is presented by Spin Ultimate; all opinions are those of the author(s). Find out how Spin can get you, and your team, looking your best this season.

Elite-Select Challenge is usually the best bet for late season bid-earning action, and 2025 continued that tradition. However much drama took place around the rankings bubble, though, there was also plenty of on-field action, both to enjoy for its own sake and to help us figure out more about the teams involved.

With the Series looming, let’s take a minute to draw what lessons we can from the games themselves – at least the ones that were filmed¹. Here are five big takeaways from Indianapolis.

Parcha Cap Off Glow-Up

Outside of a moment of muddle-headedness in the preseason rankings, the Ultiworld staff have been nothing less than apoplectically positive about Pittsburgh Parcha’s 2025 campaign. Through three stops they have: reached a tournament final by knocking off a pair of Nationals bracket mainstays in succession, beaten their top in-region competition for the first time in program history, shown the ability to close out games from ahead or come from behind, and, with their ESC win, proved that they can handle the pressure that comes with being one of a tournament’s presumed favorites by putting in an undefeated weekend.

Because the final was rescheduled to an earlier timeslot – a combination of Sunday morning lightning delays, heat concerns, and afternoon travel plans prompted the teams to reschedule it – there is no available video of Parcha’s (abbreviated) 7-5 win over Portland Schwa. That said, sources close to the action attest to the fact that Pittburgh’s stable of receivers (Mackenzie Priest, Linn Bjanes, Miya Liang, Taylor Conroy, and, when it suits her, Carolyn Normile) were once again on the attack, that Annelise Peters’s deep throwing aim was true, and that they were appropriately opportunistic on Schwa’s late turnover.

Would they have held on for a second half?² That’s for a fortune teller to say. What’s clear is that the personnel and play-calling mixes continue to serve Parcha extraordinarily well. We cannot stress it enough that they have broken through and are a very, very good team.

Re-tooled Schwa Holding Steady

Portland Schwa are a team in the midst of one of those periodic transitions that affect every club at some point: the departures of several tentpole players³ and the concomitant need to figure out a new way to play at the same level (or better). The good news is that they have a fantastic core ready for primetime, as a chunk of their recent youth and college top end players are stepping into the club scene in a big way. Trout Weybright, Miko Magnant, Mara Hindery-Glasinovic, Opal and Helen Burruss, JJ Galian, and Syris Linkfield have all, to varying degrees, found ways to make plays. Here’s just one example:

Nor does the team lack veteran savvy: Aubri Bishop (D-line) and Brenna Bailey (O-line) remain integral pieces, as they have since before the pandemic. And in the backfield, backfield mates Rachel Hess and Claudia Tajima often demonstrate an iron grip on the team’s pace of play, controlling it like they each have a thumb on an analog stick. All of which is to say the team’s year of transition is going relatively well. But there is room for improvement. Throw execution against poach sets, opening up deep shots on longer points, and finding ways to limit opponents’ deep games should all be areas of focus heading into Northwest Regionals.

One last bright spot worth mentioning: while Schwa may have struggled to contain Parcha’s air raid offense, they were nothing short of brilliant at marking in their semifinal win. Rookie Arenaria Cramer (a South Eugene product currently playing college at Claremont) in particular was a point block menace. It could be something to build on as they prepare for a fight in the top-heavy Northwest.

A Chance for Grit… and Flight?

1. We did not have a women’s division reporter on site. ↩

2. The game was called as they took a halftime. ↩

3. Mariel Hammond, Julia Sherwood, Eva Popp ↩